1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to improvements in hammock design. More particularly, it relates to a hammock having a pillow and a slot formed therein that enhances the utility of the hammock.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A hammock is a flexible, bed-like device that is suspended between two support pillars. Trees are believed to have served as the support pillars for the earliest hammocks, but in modern times metallic and plastic frames have been designed that support hammocks at their opposite ends. As a result, hammocks can now be used indoors, but they are seldom thought of as indoor furniture.
Hammocks are always made of a flexible material, because the original purpose of the hammock was to provide an easily constructed, yet comfortable bed. Both open weave and closed weave designs have utility, the former being associated with traditional Mexican Yucatan hand-made varieties and the latter being associated with factory-made types. Typically, the designs include a rigid cross bar at the opposite ends of the bodysupporting part of the hammock and plural radiating strands that extend from a support post to the cross bar. The function of the cross bar is to maintain the width or transverse extent of the hammock when a weight is deposited atop it. There are many designs, however, that do not rely upon a rigid cross bar to hold the hammock open.
The art of hammock design has been stagnant for centuries, because the conventional wisdom has been and remains that the hammock is a primitive furniture item that is so elementary in structure that any improvements thereto would result in an item that would not even be a hammock. Thus, countless artisans have studied the hammock with an eye toward improving it, and all have heretofore failed. The addition of the above-mentioned rigid cross bar is believed to be the only significant improvement to hammocks since their invention by a weary but innovative artisan whose name was not recorded by his unimpressed contemporaries.